The Ficino Quartet comprises four of our most inspirational musicians and has featured in NSQF’s programme each year since 2019. This autumn they revive a lovely quartet by Ian Wilson and look forward to next year’s Beethoven anniversary with performances of his epic C sharp minor quartet.

Ian Wilson’s beautifully descriptive and atmospheric Lyric Suite was commissioned by RTÉ Lyric FM in 2004. It comprises Seven Elegiac Pieces which the composer describes as songs without words which explore a range of colours and emotions in their brief spans.

Beethoven’s monumental C sharp minor quartet Op.131 is considered by many to be his greatest. It is a perfectly structured seven movement odyssey, played without a pause, which leads the listener through the many and varied pages of a universal story. Its opening fugue is austere and searching, its central movements shift between tenderness, wit and restless drive, and its dazzling finale unleashes a fierce, defiant energy.

Ficino Quartet

Elaine Clark, violin
Lynda O’Connor, violin
Nathan Sherman, viola
Ailbhe McDonagh, cello

The Programme

Ian Wilson – Quartet No.7 Lyric Suite [2004]
Beethoven – String Quartet in C sharp minor Op.131 [1826]